Trump taps former Treasury official for Fed post

President Donald Trump on Monday nominated a former Treasury official and a Kansas banking regulator to fill two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board.If confirmed by the Senate, the picks allow Trump to further mold the central bank leadership to his liking.The Fed board currently has only three serving members, two of whom are Trump appointees, allowing him the unprecedented opportunity to selected all but one of the board’s seven members.Trump tapped Richard Clarida for a four-year term as Fed vice chairman, filling a seat vacated in October by former Vice Chair Stanley Fischer.Clarida served in the Treasury under a former president George W. Bush, and in Ronald Reagan’s White House. He has taught at Columbia University since 1988, and has advised California asset manager PIMCO since 2006. Trump also nominated Kansas State Banking Commissioner Michelle Bowman to a seat on the board.Bowman is the first woman ever to serve as Kansas banking commissioner, which oversees locally chartered banks and non-depositary lenders.She also has held positions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Homeland Security as well as serving on the staff of former Republican senator Bob Dole.Fed Chair Jerome Powell, who was originally named to the board by former President Barack Obama, sailed through the Senate confirmation process and replaced Janet Yellen in February.The current Fed vice chair for supervision, Randal Quarles, took office in October.But a another Trump nominee, Carnegie Mellon University economist Marvin Goodfriend, faces stiff opposition from Democrats, casting doubt on chances he will be confirmed by the full Senate.In a third selection Monday, Trump picked securities lawyer Dan Michael Berkovitz to fill a seat at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives markets.Berkovitz was CFTC general counsel from 2009 to 2013, immediately following the financial crisis, and now serves at the powerful global law firm WilmerHale.